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CNN Live Today

Stand-Off Continues in Bethlehem

Aired April 15, 2002 - 13:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get to Bethlehem right now, about six miles south of our location here in Jerusalem. That standoff in the church of the nativity does continue. In fact, on Sunday, Israel made an offer and about 200 Palestinian gunmen turned themselves over for arrest or accept permanent exile oust region. Sheila MacVicar was in the town earlier on Monday. She was also there on Sunday, and what she found in Bethlehem is a city under siege.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHEILA MACVICAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The sound of Bethlehem Manger Square early Sunday morning. For 14 days after the Israeli military went back into Bethlehem, 13 days after Palestinian gunmen, the Israeli military says 200 of them took over the Church of the Nativity. The people of Bethlehem have been under siege. The city is a mess. No garbage has been picked up. Conditions are ripe for breeding disease. Food is rotting. It smells. The water system is damaged. And this family told us they had enough water left for only one day. When people do come out of the streets of this neighborhood of the old city, it is because they must.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We today go out because we want bread, at least bread. We have nothing at our houses, nothing at all. Without electricity or no water, nothing.

MACVICAR: All it takes it clear the alley is the brief sight of Israeli soldiers. In seconds, the alley is deserted, the shutters closed. Canon Andrew White, Anglican Church's Envoy, went to Bethlehem to see conditions there.

CANNON ANDREW WHITE, ENVOY, ANGLICAN CHURCH: The humanitarian crisis is really quite enormous. We have stories literally by the hour of people who are without food and water, without medicine.

MACVICAR: Bethlehem civilians are trapped, caught between the Israeli military and a Palestinian gunman. The Israelis say their troops will not pull back from Bethlehem, in spite of what is clearly a growing humanitarian crisis, until they can end the siege at Church of the Nativity.

So far, there is no way found to break that dead lock. Meeting his cabinet on Sunday, Prime Minister Sharon laid out his offer to break the siege. The Palestinian gunmen in the church could either accept permanent exile, he said, or stand trial in an Israeli court. Palestinian officials say, in spite of the price their people are paying, those choices are unacceptable.

There is no sign the resolve of any of those holed up in the church is breaking. Cannon White speaks everyday to the clerics trapped inside.

WHITE: It is very serious health hazard in there. There is a huge number of weapons in there as well. And so, all in all, you have a humanitarian crisis, but you also have potentially, almost apocalyptic crisis waiting to take place within there.

MACVICAR: Walking in Bethlehem, you feel the clock ticking, a people under siege, a standoff with gunmen the Israelis say are terrorists, and not a solution in sight. Sheila MacVicar, CNN, Bethlehem.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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